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1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to paint roller cover cleaning devices, and more particularly to a lightweight portable roller cleaning apparatus adapted for hookup to a variety of standard household water faucets and capable of rapid water-based paint roller cleaning with minimum mess.
2. Background Information and Discussion of Related Art
The use of a paint roller provides an efficient and clean method of applying paint to surfaces. However, as anyone who has painted with a roller knows, cleaning the roller cover after use is another matter. By design roller covers absorb a considerable volume of paint. Accordingly, experienced painters develop a feel for the most effective volume of paint to absorb into the cover before applying paint to the surface. Generally, the roller material is first substantially saturated with paint; then an excess is rolled into cover and the excess is rolled onto the surface. This takes advantage of the bonding properties of paints, which adhere more readily to dry surfaces than to the paint itself, but not so much so that the paint will readily migrate from the roller cover material to the surface when the roller""s supply of paint nears exhaustion. Thus, while much of the excess paint can be expressed onto the painting surface, a large amount also remains in the roller nap, particularly in thick and long naps.
Cleaning a roller cover is a time-consuming task, frequently quite messy, and for the professional actually constitutes a waste of labor and money. In consequence, the professional is as likely as not to simply discard the roller cover after a first use. The non-professional also tends to avoid the inconvenience of cleanup, because the time it takes to clean a roller outweighs the any cost savings realized from avoiding a new purchase, particularly in view of the long periods of time between painting. Because even poorly made paper tube roller covers can easily be designed to work effectively in repeated uses, if a rapid and effective means of cleaning a roller cover is devised, discarding a roller after a single use would be economically and environmentally irresponsible. Thus, it is desirable to have a quick, effective, cost-effective means for cleaning paint from roller covers in order to realize both economic and environmental benefits.
To this end, several devices have been proposed to solve the roller cover cleaning problem. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,679 to Dolcater, teaches an apparatus for cleaning a paint roller cover removed from its handle. The apparatus has a cylindrical housing with a transverse end wall at one end carrying a tubular bushing and an opening at the opposite end. A shaft is snugly but slidably received in the end wall bushing and it extends longitudinally inside the housing and terminates short of the housing""s end opening. A support for a roller cover is rotatably mounted on the shaft. This support can be slidably assembled frictionally to a paint roller cover. The assembled paint roller cover, support and shaft can be inserted and removed as a unit through the end opening of the housing. A water spray tube inside the housing sprays water onto the roller cover on the support and shaft.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,027 to Glunt, teaches a roller cleaning apparatus utilizing plural sprays which turn and clean supported rollers in a cylindrical container extending vertically from the bottom wall to the top. The container includes a lid over the top. The bottom wall is configured to allow the discharge of fluid. The container also includes legs to support the container in its vertical orientation. A support mechanism is vertically positioned in the center of the container and adapted to receive the interior surface of a paint roller to be cleaned. A manifold assembly includes a vertically extending first manifold and support mechanisms with radially extending apertures. A pair of exterior vertically extending manifolds, parallel to the first manifold and adjacent to the interior faces of the side walls, define the space between the exterior manifolds for the receipt of the roller to be cleaned. The exterior manifolds have radially extending apertures for water to spray on the exterior surface of the roller, offset from its center. A horizontal coupling manifold is connected to the lower ends of the vertical manifolds with a region thereof extending through the container for selective coupling to a hose.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,769 to Howe, discloses a paint roller cover cleaning device comprising a drum with a perforated base, a cylindrical sidewall and an open top fitted with a removable lid. The device has a support that frictionally engages a paint roller cover rotatably secured to the base of the drum. The cylindrical sidewall has a vertical slot opening that allows the user to selectively direct a pressurized stream of solvent from a nozzle against the outer periphery or nap of the paint roller cover.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,491 to Middleton, teaches a roller cleaner comprising a doublewalled, tubular vessel configured with a central cavity into which a paint roller can be placed for washing while the roller cover is mounted on a handle frame. A hose fitting enables connection to an indoor faucet or spigot, or to a pump to provide pressurized water to the double walled shell manifold from which the liquid sprays through openings in the inner wall into the cavity, striking the roller tangentially. The nap of the roller cover is caused to spin on its handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,399 to Hannah, teaches a roller cleaner having a hollow tubular housing with a freely rotatable support frame for holding a paint roller pad for cleaning. The housing is closed at one end and includes a series of openings down one side. A movable spraytube on the outside of the housing includes a series of spray jets which correspond to the openings to spray water into the housing. The spray tube moves to allow the user to change the direction of the water spray before or during cleaning in order to vary the speed and/or direction of the rotating roller pad inside. A second spray tube having a series of spray-openings is fixed on the center shaft of the rotating internal support frame. A valve on the outside spray tube allows the user to adjust the flow of water to the sprayers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,152 to Hibberd, discloses a paint roller cleaning device wherein the roller to be cleaned is shoved over a roller holder which is rotatably mounted in a vertical position in a container such as an open top bucket. Fan type jets are supported from an inlet water manifold and adjusted in position to direct a thin wall of water essentially tangentially against the paint roller to cause the roller to rotate and to contact every point on the roller to cause the roller to spin. Means are provided to connect a garden hose directly to the vertical manifold.
Although the foregoing patents disclose useful devices, all require that the roller cover be removed from the roller itself before cleaning. Accordingly, one of the messiest aspects of cleaning a roller is not surmounted with these devices. It is thus preferable to have a device that cleans a roller cover while still on the handle. Several other patents are illustrative of this art. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,598, to Hodgdon, teaches a paint roller rinser having an elongated tubular housing enclosed on both open ends with housing end walls, and lengthwise horizontally disposed when used. Each housing end wall contains a small fluid discharge opening for elimination of fluid and paint residue. A living hinge attached door over an opening allows the insertion of a roller cover. A pressurized fluid distribution system within the housing has a plurality of fluid emission nozzles that can be manually positioned to rotate a roller brush first in one direction then another. Support members prevent housing rolling and support the rod section of the roller during cleaning.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,133 to Russell, shows a paint roller cleaning device including a housing with a cover to hold the paint roller cover on the inside. A spray tube inside the housing directs water onto the cylindrical brush of the paint roller causing the cover to centrifugally eject water and paint.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,130,124 to Sherwin, discloses a paint roller cleaner comprising a bifurcated elongate housing for supporting a paint roller. An inlet manifold extends along a wall of the housing chamber and has a portion extending through a housing wall for connection to a source of cleaning liquid under pressure. Within the chamber, the manifold has outlet openings to direct cleaning liquid toward a paint roller supported in the chamber. The manifold is movable to direct liquid at different angles toward the paint roller. The housing members provide a discharge opening through which the cleaning liquid escapes from the chamber. A valve arrangement is provided for admission of air under pressure to the manifold, for drying of a cleaned paint roller within the chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,672,987 to Brandt, teaches a roller cleaner having a vertically oriented tubular housing having an open top through which the roller is inserted into the housing for washing, and having an open bottom through which used washing fluid and material exit the housing. A sprayer assembly is provided for directing a stream of washing fluid against the roller when disposed within the housing to clean and rotate the roller on the handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,111, to Gillies, discloses a paint roller cleaning system which includes a housing, covers on two opposing open ends, a centrally positioned notch, a dispensing tube having a plurality of nozzles extending through one cover through an aperture and in fluid communication with a conventional garden hose. Water supplied to a hose coupler is dispensed through the nozzles to the outside edge of a paint roller, thereby causing the roller cover to rotate while the user lowers and raises the dispensing tube to saturate the roller cover.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,459 to Bisby, teaches a paint roller cleaning apparatus comprising a hollow pipe with notches formed at the lower end to permit fluid to escape from the interior of the pipe. A tubular spray arm is rotatably mounted within the pipe and has a plurality of vertically aligned and spaced apart apertures to spray water along the length of a paint roller cover positioned within the pipe. An elbow at the top of the paint arm projects from the pipe and is connected by a flexible hose to a water source. A clip on the exterior of the pipe grips the support rod of a paint roller, and a slot in the upper edge of the pipe receives the support rod so that the paint roller is journaled in a vertical orientation with the roller""s longitudinal axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the spray arm.
As will be readily appreciated, there are considerable similarities in all of the foregoing art. A consistent and recurrent theme is the use of a forceful water spray to the outer edge of a roller cover to both dissolve the paint and to rotate the cover, inducing centrifugal forces to eject paint from the roller into a housing to contain and direct the waste paint solution. The devices are of varying convenience to use, but none accomplishes the desired task with the simplicity, efficacy, economy, and rapidity of the present invention.
The roller cover washer of the present invention cleans a roller cover without the need to remove the roller cover from the roller assembly. The cleaner comprises a hollow pipe handle connected by a swivel-type adaptor to a water supply. The handle terminates in a water outlet end which includes a threaded end coupled to a T-connector and having pipe extensions perpendicular to the handle and capped at their ends. It is secured in the housing by a locking collar. The water outlet end is covered by a cylindrical housing partly closed at each end by semicircular splash shields. Each pipe extension includes a plurality of apertures adapted to direct a fanned spray of water at an angle onto the roller""s circumference.
A roller cover on a roller assembly can be inserted into the housing pipe through either of the openings at the ends. When in use, the roller spins rapidly as paint is diluted and forced from the cover both by the water spray and by the centrifugal force induced from the spinning roller. Thus, paint and water are ejected from the cover and drain into the housing and out the open ends of the housing.